As a log, this is a little late (I have put about 500 miles on it), but the car isn't quite done (rear fenders are still in the mail).

In the beginning (just over a year ago):

I recreated some McSorley (442) dwgs in Autocad and had a guy at work plot them out 1:1. I then simply cut tube to fit the drawings, clamped them down to the MDF and tacked together. It was like making a balsa model airplane, only with an angle grinder instead of an xacto.

All three "levels" tacked together. Sat perfectly flat on the floor. I was shocked.

Still didn't have a good welder, so borrowed a really nice one from a buddy. Only had it for the weekend, so put in a grueling 15 hours of solid welding in one weekend. I was balancing the welding (weld joint on one side, then the other), so half that time was spent flipping the frame back and forth. I also used wet rags 6" away from the welds to remove heat.

Frame STILL sat flat on the floor.

On to the tunnel:

I kinda built it around the pedals and seats.

Shoulda left a tad more clearance around the seats.
One of the reasons I went with 442 is the pesky input offset with the RX7 axle. I knew the tunnel was going to have to be a little big.

But the width of the RX7 axle is marginal (for tire clearance) with a 442, so I "deviated from the book" to make the trailing arm front mounts flush with the frame sides.

This is how I got 375lb springs, that are an inch longer than the coilover, onto the coilover. This crazy idea courtesy some guy in UK. It was fun watching the zips slowly stretch as I was fumbling the spring into place and tightening the preload nut.

My guess is a weld spark went into the seat foam, smoldered for a while, then erupted. All I know is, I welded a Dzus plate onto the dash bar, went in the house for lunch, heard noises, car was in flames.

The plastic fuel cell held up pretty well, otherwise I'd have lost the garage:

The good news:

I still have my house.
Frame is OK.
Axle OK.
Everything forward of the seats OK (except the Mychron and brake res).
I was gonna have to dissassemble it anyway for paint/skin.

I also ordered fancy wheels and an aluminum flywheel just to cheer myself up.

Put on the skin:

Fabbed ANOTHER chassis wiring harness and put the whole thing back together.

The new fenders and coilovers from UK never arrived and are presumed lost. Luckily the burned coilovers, with new springs and rubber parts, seem to be working fine. I went ahead and ordered Caterham fenders from Colorado and they should get here tomorrow.

Like I said, I've put about 500 miles on it since reassembly. I blew the clutch slave on the third outing, and bent the lower wishbones on the fourth (rough roads, too much bottoming out?). Straightened them out and put on a lot of gusseting.

I just spent an unreasonable amount of time (~30hrs) fabbing the front cycle fender mounts.

I find myself a little superstitious about taking pictures now, but I'll try to get over that once the rear fenders are painted/mounted.

that fire would have been horrible! There was a guy building a Robin Hood in Europe that burned down in a similar fashion - he lost the whole thing and his garage. Good to see you're rebuilding though. Best of luck this time around.

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